Can anyone be "better than perfect"? That's the question lonely teenager Elizabeth Haddon struggles to answer when she is sent from England to live with relatives in Auckland, New Zealand. Arriving in the dead of winter, Elizabeth soon falls under the spell of her beautiful, but enigmatic cousin Ravenna who insists the most important thing in life is to "fit in." Elizabeth, who wants only to be accepted by her new family and their affluent social circle, does her best to comply until she starts to see the cracks; cracks that turn into virtual canyons when tragedy strikes. Set in a time before computers, e-mail, or cell phones, Better Than Perfect follows Elizabeth's journey to find her own true place in a world of isolation. "The language of social climate makes this a story of search, not just the line of least resistance. Elizabeth's clear voice holds all the way through." Gordon Marlow, author of Vincent's Revenge. Young adult fiction.